Here are the patch notes for this morning's game update (taken from the patcher):

*** Highlights ***

- New hats have arrived in celebration of Frostfell! Adventurers with the Hero's Forge feature can now wear a variety of hat ornamentations that have a chance to drop from all mobs in non-raid zones.- Player Studio Items will be live on December 13th! Check the Marketplace then to see what's new! - Fixed an issue that was causing the Small Bright Fear Shards in Shard's Landing to become unavailable over time. These shards will also spawn more frequently.- New AA upgrades have been added. See the AA section below for more details.

*** Items ***

- Player Studio Items will be live on December 13th! Check the Marketplace then to see what's new!- New hats have arrived in celebration of Frostfell! Adventurers with the Hero's Forge feature can now wear a variety of hat ornamentations that have a chance to drop from all mobs in non-raid zones. - Fixed an issue that was causing the Small Bright Fear Shards in Shard's Landing to become unavailable over time. These shards will also spawn more frequently.- All Rain of Fear equipment with appearances can now be placed in housing.- Bard focus spells have been added to several armor pieces that were missing them.- Several missing spells have been located and returned to their items.- Corrected several item naming errors.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Subdued Subjects - Luring a subdued spinechiller to Veldmir should now properly update the task, regardless of whether you have brought him a subdued orc already.- Shard Experiences - Chunks of Alaran Flesh will now be available from the intended NPCs.- A Feast Fit for a Coldain - Baffod now asks for Juicy Bunny Meat and Fresh Snow Griffin Eggs.- Paradise Lost - Task credit is now only rewarded when handing in the item to the proper NPC.- Deliver Us Unto Evil - Drjek will now give you a new Large Sliver of Fear if you happen to lose yours.- Coveted Rubbish - Selya should now respond correctly when approached about its obsession.

*** Spells ***

- Cleric - Corrected the spell landed message of Symbol of Gezat.- Ranger - Removed the Grasping Spurcoat spell since it had no better effect than Grasping Nettlecoat but cost more mana. It should no longer be for sale or selectable as a reward and can safely be deleted from your spellbook.- Wizard - Removed Firetree's line of familiar enhancing spells because familiars are no longer hit by spells and do not need the buffs. The spells should no longer be for sale and can safely be deleted from your spellbook.

*** NPC ***

- Magus Burlshin has solved his quandary of duality and will only appear in Shard's Landing now.- The imposter drolvarg captain commonly seen in Karnor's Castle has been demoted to lieutenant. The real captain was not pleased with his subordinates taking his title.- Corrected grammar errors in Breeding Grounds, Crystal Caverns: Fragment of Fear, the Valley of King Xorbb, Kael Drakkel: The King's Madness, Shard's Landing, and East Wastes: Zeixshi-Kar's Awakening.- Mobs in Rain of Fear that con as "easy" no longer reject all slow spells, which will now allow spells with a slowing component to land. However, ninety-nine percent of the slowing component will be mitigated.

*** AA ***

- Berserker - Created 3 new ranks of Hastened Self Preservation.- Druid - Vinelash Assault has been added to Extended Vinelash Cascade.- Druid - Survival of the Fortuitous has been added to Fortified Survival.- Monk - Created 3 new ranks of Hastened Speed Focus.- Paladin - Created a new rank of Disruptive Persecution.- Rogue - Created 3 new ranks of Extended Envenomed Blades.- Rogue - Created 3 new ranks of Precision.- Shadowknight - Terror of Poira has been added to Quickened Terrors.- Warrior - Created 5 new ranks of Phalanx of One.- Warrior - Krondal's Roar will now correctly be affected by Hastened Bazu Roar.

*** Skills ***

- Fixed an issue with skill caps on Forage for levels 96 to 100. The cap has been returned to 200 for all classes with the Forage skill.

*** Achievements ***

- Corrected an error that granted a blank achievement upon logging in to the game.

*** Collections ***

- Collection items should no longer spawn in positions that lure you into portals. Offending spawns have been punished for their treachery.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Fixed some issues related to memory handling. Crashing after zoning multiple times in a play session should be less frequent now.- Fixed an issue with emitters that was causing unnecessary memory consumption.- Optimized a processing and memory issue with the Pet Info window.- Fixed an issue related to particle density where it wasn't properly using the settings in the Options window.- Fixed a mercenary leveling issue. You should no longer have to zone to get your mercenary to use its proper focus items after you have just leveled up.- Fixed an issue with the AA slider and the new Rain of Fear-style rewards. You will now receive all of the level experience that is intended even if the AA allocation is set to 100 percent.- Added some additional client logging to track down crashing issues. Please keep sending in reports!

*** UI ***

- Modified the Item Inspect window and the Marketplace window to support Player Studio items.- Changed some text related to bazaar delivery to no longer reference "mailbox" when it should be "parcels."- Fixed a merchant stack issue where selling an item to a merchant that already has the item was using the stack size as the quantity that the merchant had.

- Fixed an issue that was causing the first raid event in the Valley of King Xorbb to crash.- Noel Gladestrider in Shard's Landing has restored his stock of scrolls for the Druid spells Spikethistle Bulwark, Granitebark Skin, and Granitebark Blessing.- Fixed a problem where Xorbb Raid 2, Yymp the Abyssal, would not start properly in a new dynamic zone.

Comments

Iam impressed with all this about headshot, all know rangers cant tank so they needet a kill faster then they die, and a chance to chatch up to the rest off us. and soe made it with headshot. My real problem here is WTF any want to run around killing the same gimp mob so many times.

try again, 2 off those with instance kill pally and mage are not kills anymore but fixed dam with a max dam, mage is so bad its lower then most nukes(32k 2%chance).Pally is running around 60-80k so no istance kill in lv 90 + range there.

Yes, remove all the instakill AA's from 100% of the classes. (Even remove them from the ones who don't have them just in case they get any fundamentally stupid ideas like aquiring instant kill aa's). In the case of the ranger, take away headshot, give them point blank shot AA and allow them to speciailise in bows in melee fights, make them better than any melee dps. And then, replace the ranger in your group with any other class or even a traffic pylon for best results.

I'd also mention that Headshot is not an instant kill ability anymore. It is limited in damage done by level. That limit is low enough that it will take two or more head shots to kill a mob with as many HP as you would commonly find in expansions as far back as Underfoot. You can see the numbers in the Headshot wiki at this site.

Further, it only works on mobs low enough that they give limited exp compared to even con or better mobs. Most rangers would prefer a good group to headshotting so for most of us headshot is what we do if we don't have a group or a raid to go to.

As for powerleveling, my limited experience with headshot powerleveling is that the levelee always does something foolish when things start to go pearshaped and ends up dead. When I help friends level these days, it's in a group.

Rogue's Assasinate line of AA's along with the slay undead line for Paladin's come to mind, for that matter we might as well remove finishing blow...but what do I know being a High Lvl Ranger and been playing for the past 11+ years, think before you speak, for the next time you do you may have a nerf happen to you

Rogue's Assasinate line of AA's along with the slay undead line for Paladin's come to mind, for that matter we might as well remove finishing blow...but what do I know being a High Lvl Ranger and been playing for the past 11+ years, think before you speak, for the next time you do you may have a nerf happen to you

Dude chill out, you're at least in your twenties (cause that's how old I am, and I started when I was twelve) when someone asks a question, try not to be so snobby eh?

Finishing blow and Slay undead aren't like Headshot, which is kinda silly to compare if you are actually an 11 year + vet as ya claim. I'm just stating that Rangers may have an advantage with their Headshot AA, as I see people posting looking for HS pling and often see HS groups around, since its becoming a more popular thing (unlike SU pally groups, Berzerkers decap groups, or Rogue assassination groups, which I haven't heard of.. have you?) that it may end up getting nerfed because just like Bard Swam-Kiting, just like Druid Quad-kiting, just like Warrior shakerpaging, it got nerfed because it gave a class an advantage that a lot of people are going to QQ about.

That's all I was saying.

Oh and Rogues and Beserkers actually have to fight and lose health in battle to get those AA kills, rangers do not, and can keep their allies safe as they mow down enemies (using the punt-back root)

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You're talking to me all wrong... It's the wrong tone. You do it again and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.

Rogue's have assassinate, Berzerkers have decapitation. Rogue's can technically assassinate any humanoid with melee or, like rangers, from range with thrown weapons; but I've been playing a rogue since just after Kunark and could count the times I've seen that happen outside of melee range. Berzerkers can only decapitate mobs with heads (non humanoid is fine though) and only within melee range.

Now i personally dont care about this new way of farming exp, you do what you need to to get your stuff done. But everytime a class has had an advantage to mass killing for exp., or a way that gave them extreme advantage its been removed or altered from the game, two instances i can think of would be warriors and bards. So perhaps its not completely invalid for people to want the whole Hs exp deal altered somehow.

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You're talking to me all wrong... It's the wrong tone. You do it again and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.

Funny how everyone who wants to be power-leveled runs around frantically looking for a ranger. Then, later on, can be caught whining about the head-shot ability like a kid whose had their candy stolen!

As for rangers making level 100, so what? It couldn't possibly be that the actually stayed in game and WORKED for those levels, now could it? Heaven fore fend!

it is easy to see when a person doesn't play a certain class. they are the ones with enough arrogance and ignorance to knock that class- like rangers. rangers contribute a lot to a group including flusterbolt. yes i do feel that rangers have been left totally out in the cold in eq1. and they are underappreciated.

to me the most frustrating part of the game has to do with the stupidity of people who don't play a class thinking they know all about that class and either telling those classes how to play or knocking them. don't knock it until you try it. if you can't get into playing a certain class, the be aware that people who do play them really know their stuff and are good at it. each class has something to offer to the game. to put one down because it doesn't happen to be yours is unwarranted prejudice. but then, people put down other people in real life all the time right? for their race, their chosen profession, their religion. how stupid to bring such ignorance to a game.

Edited, Dec 12th 2012 10:19am by iyeni

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Success comes when preparation meets opportunity -- and EQ is no exception.

it is easy to see when a person doesn't play a certain class. they are the ones with enough arrogance and ignorance to knock that class- like rangers. rangers contribute a lot to a group including flusterbolt. yes i do feel that rangers have been left totally out in the cold in eq1. and they are underappreciated. Edited, Dec 12th 2012 10:19am by iyeni

I saw that they were updating some AA's and got my hopes up that maybe rangers wouldn't be left in the dark. Yet sad to say myself and my poor fellow rangers are left behind. It would have been nice to see updated for maybe a level or 2 of headshot and increased rank in auspice, yet sad to say i have to have wishfull dreams of things.

I saw that they were updating some AA's and got my hopes up that maybe rangers wouldn't be left in the dark. Yet sad to say myself and my poor fellow rangers are left behind. It would have been nice to see updated for maybe a level or 2 of headshot and increased rank in auspice, yet sad to say i have to have wishfull dreams of things.

Speaking as a shadowknight with a ranger alt i cant wait until SOE quits ******** around and removes headshot and swarming entirely from the game or gives similar to the rest...

I honestly dont understand all the ranger complaining. Like you are just owed an ability that gives you insane XP rates that blow all but a couple classes out of the water. Anyone with any common sense saw this coming a mile away and should understand why. If not they are just mad that they cant get insane XP rates or make a living PLing.

The sooner these are gone the sooner we can get some real changes in game because as it is now the devs are afraid to make changes to certain classes like SKs because they dont want to buff their insane XP farm abilities.

The sad thing is with some competence this barely even effects rangers. Farm all your AAs before leaving level 95, problem solved. It wont take long to get the RoF AAs and you will still be better off than most classes. But hey why play smart when you can just whine away?

Hmm.. I must have missed a few things then.. Can you tell me the tricks for shm ? Shammies are bound to a stupid mercenary and they run amok if there are more than few mobs. And even with a mercenary I kill a HoT lower floors mob in ave 40 seconds while an SK or Zerker kill em in like 5 seconds without mercenary. I will be very thankful for any reasonable answer you post